Retired chief education officer and former permanent secretary Ralph Boyce has died.
He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 85, after ailing for some time.
After retiring in 2000, Boyce, a former president of the Men’s Educational Support Association (MESA), devoted his efforts to championing men’s rights through MESA of which he was a founder. He was in the vanguard of the fight for longer paternity leave, and also rallied on issues such as child support. He was often the loudest voice heard in protest on any matters he considered disadvantageous to men.
Boyce was deputy chairman of the National Union of Public Workers’ Retirees Division. He was also a member of the executive of the Coleridge and Parry Alumni Association, Barbados Association of Retired Persons, Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Ltd, PAREDOS and the YMCA. He represented MESA on the National Advisory Council on Family Matters.
He also lived and worked in Jamaica for 15 years as a teacher and publications officer at the University of the West Indies Institute of Education.
For his tireless work, the educator was awarded the Gold Crown of Merit by the Barbados Government in 2011.
The father of three, he was pre-deceased by his wife Hester to whom he was married for about 40 years.
